In view of the forest fire claiming trekkers’ lives in Theni district of Tamil Nadu, Telangana forest department has issued an advisory to all its field officers, asking them not to allow unauthorised visitors into forest areas, especially to fire prone areas.
Patrolling should be intensified at all entry and exit points and no person should be allowed to carry matchboxes, beedis, cigarettes, lighters into the forest, the advisory said.
Forest department officials should apprise the district administration of fire sensitive areas, to ensure additional measures are taken for fire prevention and management as per the district disaster management plan.
All stakeholders, including government employees, Green Brigade members and Haritha Rakshana Samithis, should be involved in the campaign to prevent forest fires, the advisory noted.
New ‘fire lines’ need to be created in all fire prone areas and old fire lines need to be maintained. Officials were directed to procure additional leaf blowers, as per the need.
Base camp watchers and strike force members must be redeployed in fire prone areas. Counselling should be conducted for beedi leaf collectors, contractors and their agents, besides shepherds, cattle rearers and non-timber forest produce collectors.
All fire alerts should be immediately acted upon and manpower, including fire station personnel, should be deployed to control forest fires.
The advisory asked the officials to reach out to the public through media and caution them not to venture into forests.
The fire mishap in Theni came on the heels of a video conference held by the forest department officials, during which they discussed the forest fire prevention measures threadbare. Since January 1, the department has received more than 7,700 satellite fire alerts from National Remote Sensing Centre routed through the Forest Survey of India.
